Most people aren’t avoiding going inward on purpose.
They’re trying to live their lives.
There are responsibilities, relationships, decisions, emotions, constant information coming in from the world. When something feels uncomfortable, the natural instinct is to fix it, solve it, distract from it, or make it go away.
Not sit with it.
Not turn toward it.
Not listen.
So “going inward” can sound like an extra task - something abstract, time-consuming, or reserved for spiritual people. And when life already feels full, who has space for that?
So it’s a fair question.
Why go inward? What’s the point?
What Happens When We Don’t
When we don’t pause to notice what’s happening inside us, we live from momentum.
We make decisions from:
- old fears
- old habits
- old survival strategies
- reactions we’ve practiced for years
We think we are solving problems, but often we are just managing symptoms. We repeat patterns in relationships, burn out trying to fix what isn’t actually the root, and feel like life keeps “happening to us.”
Not because we’re failing - but because we are moving too fast to see what is driving us.
Why People Don’t Know How
Most people were never taught how to relate to their inner world.
When they do try to turn inward, they often land on the thing that hurts - stress, conflict, worry - and the mind immediately asks:
“What do I do about this?”
Listening inward becomes problem-solving mode. Fixing mode. Mental looping.
So it doesn’t feel helpful. It feels like spinning.
The Missing Middle Step
There are two common modes most people know:
- Something feels uncomfortable
- Fix it, avoid it, or control it
But there is a step in between that changes everything.
That step is noticing.
Not noticing to analyze.
Not noticing to fix.
Noticing to become aware.
Instead of asking,
“What should I do about this?”
try asking,
“Can I notice what’s happening inside me right now - without rushing to change it?”
At first this can seem pointless.
“Okay, I noticed I’m anxious. Now what?”
But noticing is not the end.
It’s the interruption.
Why Noticing Matters
When we don’t notice, we react automatically. We send the reactive message. We say yes when we mean no. We push ourselves when we’re exhausted. We defend. We shut down. We spiral.
We aren’t choosing from awareness - we are choosing from habit.
But when we pause, even for a moment, and notice what’s happening inside, something shifts. There is space.
And in that space, we are no longer just our pattern.
We have choice.
Noticing doesn’t fix the moment.
It changes who is living the moment.
This Isn’t a Big Inner Journey
Going inward doesn’t have to mean hours of self-reflection or changing your whole life.
It can be as simple as this:
Once a day, pause for less than a minute and ask:
“What is actually happening inside me right now?”
You might notice tension.
Or tiredness.
Or irritation.
Or nothing clear at all.
That’s enough.
This is not about solving. It’s about including your inner experience, not just responding to the outer world.
The Real Point
The point of going inward isn’t to become a different person overnight.
It’s to stop living only from reaction.
To slowly shift from:
automatic → aware
reflex → response
momentum → presence
The irony is that this makes life outward easier. We stop fighting everything. We stop trying to control what we haven’t even taken time to feel.
We begin to live from a deeper center instead of constant urgency.
Going inward doesn’t have to be a journey you take someday.
It can begin as a simple shift -
listening to yourself just a little differently than you did yesterday.
And from that small difference, your life begins to change from the inside out
With love and blessings,
Susan